1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a deodorant material for deodorizing bad odor.
2. Discussion of Background
FIG. 1 is a structural view showing a conventional active carbon. FIG. 2 is a structural view showing a conventional deodorant material supporting cupric ion. In these Figures, 22 is active carbon, 21 is a micropore, 31 is a cellulose fiber, 32 is a OH residual group of cellulose and 33 is cupric ion.
Now, deodorizing mechanism will be described. The active carbon physically adsorbs bad odor molecules existing in air flow with its micropores to conduct deodorization. The cupric ion reacts with bad odor molecules such as H.sub.2 S as described in the following scheme to conduct deodorization. EQU H.sub.2 S+Cu (II).fwdarw.CuS+H.sub.2
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 34565/1987 discloses a method wherein cupric ion is attached to active carbon.
Since the conventional deodorant material using the active carbon is constituted as described above, there are drawbacks that when the micropore is saturated with the adsorbed bad odor molecules, the deodorization is no more conducted and the lifetime of the deodorant material is short. Since the reaction rate of the deodorization by use of the cupric ion is low, it is difficult to apply it to an air cleaner which treats a large amount of air. In a method wherein the cupric ion is directly attached to the active carbon, there are drawbacks that the adsorptive sites for the cupric ions on the active carbon are few and that, if a large amount of the cupric ions are supported on the active carbon to improve deodorizing properties, the micropores of the active carbon are filled with copper salts and the deodorizing properties are contrarily lowered.
The present invention is made to solve the above drawbacks. An object of the present invention is to obtain a deodorant material having high efficiency and long lifetime.